Home Grown: The collector whose grunge records are as important as his dog

Because every record collection has a story.

Home Grown is our series profiling you lot and your excellent record collections. Taking our cue from the brilliant submissions to the #VFRecordCollections thread on Instagram, we want to share a little of your hard-earned love for vinyl with the world.

Each week, we’ll be profiling a different collector from around the world and finding out what makes them tick. Want in? Send us a pic and a few words about your collection to [email protected]

---

Name: Kegan Simons

Location: Simi Valley, California

Size of collection (approx.): 1,500 LPs, 500 7″s

How long have you been collecting for?

Over 20 years. As soon as I turned 16 and got my license, I drove into the U-District and Capitol Hill neighbourhoods of Seattle, and went record shopping. I bought my first two vinyl albums at this used record shop on 45th Ave. in the U-District: R.E.M.’s Eponymous and Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps.

What part of your set up are you most proud of?

I’m proud to say I’ve never paid full retail for any of my set-ups. I use yard sales, estate sales, eBay/Craigslist, and swap meets to piece together my systems. I’ve had everything from Fishers to Pioneers to twin-powered Harman Kardon over the years. But several years back, I settled on ’80s-era Sansui. My current Sansui ‘Black Stack’ set up is Sansui AU-417 amp, Sansui TU-417 tuner, Sansui SC-3110 cassette deck. Marantz 6100 turntable, and a Pioneer P-T503 dual-tray CD player. My buddy Mike gifted me these amazing sounding CBS Audio Reference 312 Ls that he’s held onto since the ’80s. They put out an amazingly deep sound. And they weigh a ton!! I bought him some good whiskey as a ‘thank you’. Totally worth it.

What record(s) are you most proud of?

I grew up near Seattle on an island in the Puget Sound, and was in junior high and high school during the grunge years, so my collection of LPs and 7″s from that time and place means a lot to me. It’s the scrapbook of my adolescence. I’ve got some amazing Sub Pop first pressings and singles record club 7″s in here. But my favourite record is a super-rare 7″ of my all-time favorite song: ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ by The Pudz. They were this power pop band from Seattle that really only ever put out this one 7″ in 1981.

What does your record collection mean to you?

I’ve got a dedicated a room in our house to just sit and listen to records in, with no ‘distractions’ – except for our dog Ginger, of course! I love to listen to a record front-to-back, the same way people sit and watch TV. I read an interview with Henry Rollins once and he said he tries to listen to 5 records a day. That’s his job, of course, which makes that much more attainable. But if I can listen to one or two records front-to-back every day, then I am doing okay.